Persona 4: White
by An Innocent Machine
Summary: 14 March 2012: One week until his departure from Inaba, and yet, that was the least-pressing issue on Seta Souji's mind. As harrowing as Valentine's Day had been, it paled before the Sisyphean task that lay before him today. Souji x Polyamory. M for language, themes, and safety. Like an ATM, you should feed me a review.
1. Prologue: 14 March 2012

**Boilerplate Disclaimer** : _Shin Megami Tensei_ , _Persona_ , and all related characters and properties are owned by Atlus Co., Ltd. I own a pile of unrelated C++ code, and no one owns words.

A minor note on words: "harem" implies a root node with many children.

"Polygamy" is similar in connotation, with additional gendering.

"Polyamory" is a very deliberate choice.

* * *

 **14 March 2012**

One week.

One week until his last day in Inaba.

But that impending departure was the last thing on Seta Souji's mind at the moment as he approached the refrigerator, opening it apprehensively—almost fearfully. There was no stench of decay, no assault of alien noise, no fallow light cast by the incomprehensible, writhing forms of an eldritch monstrosity beyond all mortal ken. Instead, a gentle, sweet scent wafted from the white maw.

He breathed a sigh of relief.

But there still lay yet another task before him—packing all of _this_ away. All that time he'd spent making origami was finally about to pay off.

* * *

Souji flexed his fingers, getting the feeling back into them, and wiped at his forehead with a sleeve. He was finally done wrapping everything up.

Behind him, there was an awed gasp.

"Woooow! That's a lot of presents, Onii-chan!"

He turned to regard his young cousin, Dojima Nanako. Her eyes were as wide as the dishes he'd just finished laying out, mouth slightly agape.

"Who are they all for?"

He gave her a gentle smile. "You know what day it is, right?"

The young girl held a finger to her mouth as she thought carefully. "Umm... it's Wednesday?"

Souji nodded. She was right, but that wasn't the asnwer he was looking for.

"Umm... it's the fourteenth..."

Again, he nodded. _Maybe a clue will help._

"What day was it last month?"

"Last month was February, so it was February the fourteenth... oh! Valentine's Day! That means today is White Day, right?"

"Right."

White Day.

One month after the fourteenth of February.

The male counterpart to Valentine's Day - when boys and men were expected to return the favor shown to them by girls and women one month prior. But, of course, it wasn't enough to hand back the same things received one month ago:

 _Sanbai gaeshi_ – "triple the return." That was what Souji's father had taught him. (Souji cherished the lessons he'd learn from both his father and mother, despite—or perhaps _because of_ —how distant they'd always been.)

Which meant, in this particular case, Souji had nearly enough chocolate, cookies, cake, and other assorted goods—not all White Day gifts _had_ to be sweets—prepared to sustain a small nation for a day or three (if the nation were particularly small).

 _Which makes sense, considering Yasogami High alone probably has, despite its rurality, a larger population than most micronations._

"But that's sooo much chocolate! Is it all for one person?"

Souji shook his head. "No. It's not all chocolate, and I have a lot of classmates." _True, strictly speaking, even if I don't intend on giving gifts to_ literally _everyone._

"And they all gave you chocolates last month? You sure are popular, Onii-chan!"

He chuckled quietly. "Some of these are courtesy chocolates. You know, for friends."

Souji turned away from Nanako and regarded the literal mountain of wrapped gifts he'd produced, the gears silently grinding away in his head. _I wonder if Dojima-ojisan would let me get away with using Namatame-san's truck._

 _...He probably wouldn't._

 _Would anyone notice if it went missing for a few hours?_

 _...They probably would. Inaba isn't that big of a town._

 _Is Namatame-san's truck even still impounded?_

 _...Does Inaba even_ have _a vehicle impound?_

This wasn't going to work. He had no way of moving this titanic pile of hand-wrapped gifts, at least not all in a single trip, and certainly no way of keeping all of it inconspicuous. (It wasn't that he was concerned about secrecy—he simply did not want to disrupt the daily flow of classes by driving a literal moving truck full of White Day gifts up to campus.)

 _This is going to require..._ scheduling _._

Souji took a quick glance at the clock on his smartphone. _Good. I can cook breakfast and then I can sit down for a few minutes to figure out who gets what when..._

"Uh, um..."

He looked away from the device in the palm of his hand, his attention caught by Nanako's quiet fidgeting. No longer captivated by the colosssal chocolate cache behind her dear Onii-chan, Nanako avoided Souji's gaze, embarrassed. Or ashamed?

In an instant, he knew what was on her mind. "Don't worry. I haven't forgotten yours. But you gave me such a great gift last month-" he said with an entirely straight face, masking the trauma "-that your present is going to take a little bit longer, okay?"

Nanako visibily brightened up: all was right in her world once more. She smiled and nodded. "Okay, Onii-chan!"

* * *

 **Author's Note** : It rankles me that the game treats you like a scumbag for going with the polyamorist route, while also making you feel like a scumbag every time you turned someone down because you were trying to be a monogamist.

Plus, it's my personal canon that Souji is a good enough person to make a poly graph work out for the betterment of everyone involved.

I'm looking for beta readers, mostly with an eye for continuity and canonicity. If you happen to have an encyclopedic knowledge of _Persona 4: Golden_ , or are incredibly circumspect and anal in your reading (e.g. you have a very good eye for plot holes or detail and minutiae), and are willing to share your knowledge and time, shoot me a PM.

Next time: Goddamnit, Yosuke.


	2. The Magician

**The Magician**

"Kanji?"

"Oh, hey. 'Sup, Yosuke-senpai?"

The blonde-haired teen slouched against the plain wall of the school building, regarding his senior with a tired glare. Hanamura Yosuke wasn't put off in the least by this; he'd long gotten used to Tatsumi Kanji's resting bitch face and could tell that his junior was just bored—and possibly still waking up, as it was well early in the morning, before classes had started properly.

"What're you doing here?" Yosuke inquired as he sidled up next to Kanji, leaning against the wall in a similar pose.

"Souji-senpai texted me, said to meet him here. You?"

"Same. I wonder what's so important that he'd need to see both of us, this early in the morning..."

"Dunno," came the non-commital reply.

Yosuke spared Kanji a curious glance. "Man, you're out of it today."

"Yeah."

"'Yeah'? Kanji, what the hell's up?"

"Yeah."

"KA-N-JI."

"Huh? Oh, 'sup Yosuke-senpai?"

Yosuke scratched his head in consternation. Kanji was _really_ out of it this morning. "KANJI. WHAT. IS. WRONG. WITH. YOU. TODAY."

"N-nothin'! And you don't gotta be so damn loud!" Kanji snapped back.

Yosuke turned to look at the taller—albeit younger—boy, now entirely irritated with his attitude. "I wouldn't have to be so damn loud if you'd PAID ATTENTION!"

"You ain't a teacher and we ain't in class, so you can stuff it!"

"Man, what the he-"

"Calm down, you two." Spoken softly and coolly, Souji's command instantly quelled the building bickering between the two teens.

"Tch. 'Sup, Senpai?"

"Man... What's going on, part- whoa! What's with the duffel bag?" Yosuke stared at the fit-to-burst container that was casually slung over his partner's shoulder, but Souji didn't reply immediately, instead studying both Kanji's and Yosuke's expressions intently.

"Hmm... before I get to that, why didn't you sleep well last night, Kanji?"

Kanji jumped to attention, surprised. "How'd you...?"

"You have bags underneath your eyes. And Yosuke is right, you _are_ out of it today."

Kanji looked away sheepishly, his face reddening. "I was up late working on something for Naoto, since today's, y'know..."

Yosuke looked even more confused. _Working on something for Naoto because of today?_ "Wait, what's so important about today that you needed to make something for Naoto-kun?"

Kanji and Souji both turned to look at Yosuke—Souji's grey eyes reflecting a kind understanding, while Kanji had an exasperated expression.

"Seriously, Senpai? Chie-senpai's gonna kill you."

"Wait, what? Why? What'd I do?!" Panic crept into Yosuke's voice; taking a critical hit was exceedingly low on his list of desirable things.

"Yosuke, you forgot what day it is, didn't you?" _Just like Nanako._

Yosuke quickly flipped out his phone and studied the date intently. His expression only worsened as understanding dawned on him.

"Oh... crap. I was so tired from helping out with the last-minute White Day preparations at Junes yesterday I totally forgot _about_ White Day!"

Kanji grinned. "Dead man walking."

"Sh-shut up! Oh man, what the hell am I gonna do? Wait, okay, maybe I can delay her, tell her that I'm still putting together something..."

"Calm down."

Yosuke roughly grabbed his partner's shoulders, shaking the silver-haired boy. "'Calm down'? How am I supposed to stay calm?! Chie will _literally kill_ me unless I think of something!"

Souji shook his head and shrugged the shoulder that the burgeoning duffel bag hung off of. "No, she won't."

"Wait... that bag... _that's_ all for today?"

"No, just all that I needed to bring for now."

"'For now'...? How the hell many people gave you Valentine's Day gifts, damnit?!"

Souji pried Yosuke's hands off his shoulders and turned to Kanji. "I'll tell you later, when we have time. Kanji when were you planning on giving Naoto her White Day gift?"

"Ahh... I dunno. Probably just when I see her?"

"She's shy about these kinds of things. She had us meet her afterschool, at the gazebo along the river, right?"

"Uh... I think? Man, it's amazing that you remember these kinds of things."

Souji ignored the compliment—it wasn't that it was untrue, or that he was being rude; he was simply pressed for time. "Tell her to walk there with you today, after class. I'll meet the two of you there, and we'll give her our White Day gifts."

Kanji grinned, grateful for the advice and direction from the man he admired. "Yeah, a'right. Thanks, Senpai—I seriously hadn't thought about this kind of thing."

"It's not a problem. Go ahead and get to class—I need to talk to Yosuke some more."

Kanji nodded and turned away from his seniors, headed toward the school entrance proper. He was honestly glad that Souji had called him up this early today—figuring out when to meet Naoto aside, it also meant he'd be early to class, and the homeroom teacher wouldn't be giving him shit about any kind of lateness.

* * *

"Okay, great, you saved Kanji from embarrassing Naoto. Now what about saving _me_ from being _emasculated_ by Chie?!" Yosuke's plaintive pleading washed over Souji without perturbing the latter for even a moment as he watched Kanji's receding back. As the tall blonde disappeared through the school entrance, Souji gently placed the bulging duffel bag he'd been carrying all morning on the ground.

"I thought you'd forget about today, so I got something for you to give to Chie."

Yosuke breathed a sigh of relief. That's just like him. Always so reliable.

"Thanks, partn-" _Wait a minute. If he already knew_ "-waaaait a minute. If you _already_ knew I was going to forget, why didn't you just remind me _ahead_ of time?!"

Souji shook his head. "I didn't say I knew you'd forget, I _thought_ you would. You said you were busy at work yesterday and that you were going to go to bed as early as possible."

Yosuke was impressed, despite his panic. "Man, you figured all that from the texts I sent you? You'd seriously give Naoto a run for her money."

"No; that was a prediction, not a deduction. Anyway, I got you something, and if you _did_ forget, then you'd have something to give to Chie."

"Ohhh, I see... Wait, you got me something?"

"Of course," Souji said as he pulled out a package, wrapped in shiny orange paper and tied with a plain white ribbon, albeit the knot was surprisingly complex. "It's White Day."

 _White Day or not, I'm not sure if guys should be giving guys gifts... even if we_ are _in a... thing._ Yosuke glanced around, trying to make sure that no one had seen them or the gift that was about to be exchanged, but there was nary a soul nearby. _Is that why he had Kanji go on ahead...? Man, he really_ does _think of everything._

"I... Thanks, Souji. Now I feel really bad that I didn't get anything for Chie or you," said Yosuke as he gingerly put the gift in his bag.

Souji's normally impassive expression broke into a warm smile as he took Yosuke's hands into his own. "Don't worry about it. I know you didn't forget _intentionally_."

Yosuke blushed. It'd been a few months, but he still wasn't quite used to such sentiments of affection from his partner. He was still adjusting to his own feelings and the stigma he'd previously attached to them—when they'd first told their mutual friends about their relationship, Kanji had given him no end of hassle, and Yosuke wasn't looking forward to a repeat of that, even if he and Kanji had patched things up soon after—but Souji, it seemed, had taken everything in stride.

"Still. I'll make it up to you—I'll get something together, don't worry about it."

Souji shook his head. "No. If you really want to make it up to me, do me a favor."

"Sure, man. Anything."

"Don't think so poorly of Chie. I know you two have a different dynamic than she and I do, but I don't like it when you make it sound like she'll hate you over every little mistake. You and her wouldn't be together like this for so long if that were true."

Yosuke looked away from Souji's piercing eyes, suddenly gaining a great interest in his shoes. "I... yeah, you're right. But you've got it wrong; I don't blame her for it. I mean, it's _my_ fault, I'm the one who forgot. She'd be totally right to get on my case for something like this."

Souji pulled his brunette partner into a comforting hug. "She gets on your case because she knows you're better than this. When you make a mistake, don't make excuses. Own it, learn from it, and become that better person that she, I, and _you_ know you can be."

Yosuke nodded against Souji's shoulder. "You're right... I do need to get better at this relationship thing. Especially since you're not going to be here next year to save my bacon a second time, huh?"

The grey-haired teen released the hug, an uncharacteristic grin on his face. "You never know. Well, unless you do. You're not secretly precognitive, are you?"

Souji's eyes narrowed into a suspicious glare, but Yosuke simply laughed it off, lightly punching the Investigation Team Leader's— _well, not anymore, not since we solved the case_ —shoulder, glad that the heavy atmosphere had been broken by the bizarre remark. "Man, you say the weirdest things sometimes. C'mon, let's get to class. I don't want Chie suspecting us of plotting anything."

Souji sighed at that parting shot, but smirked all the same, knowing that the remark had been made in good humor, and walked the last few meters into the school building shoulder-to-shoulder with his partner.

* * *

 **Author's Note** : Like I said previously—to the betterment of _everyone_.

Next time: The Dragon and The Phoenix.


	3. The Chariot and The Priestess

**Author's Note** : Last time: Goddamnit, Yosuke.

* * *

 **The Chariot and The Priestess**

Lunchtime was signaled by the school bell. Yosuke shot up like a bolt, muttering "Bathroom bathroom bathroom _bathroom_ ," under his breath, making his way past all the other students in a near-sprint to the closest facility.

"Yosuke-"

" _BATHROOM!_ " screeched Yosuke as he disappeared out of the classroom, preventing Souji from finishing. _Oh well._ Souji reached into a pocket and pulled out his phone. The brunette in the seat next to him stretched mightily, her satisfied groan slowly morphing into a powerful yawn.

"Uugh... It's so warm today, I just wanna take a nap," she said sleepily. "How does Yosuke have the energy to run around like that?"

"When you have to go, you have to go," replied Souji, not looking up from his phone.

"What are you doing there, Souji-kun?" The girl with the long, dark hair in the seat in front of the brunette had turned around to face two of the people closest to her heart.

The girl next to him leaned over and peered at the phone's screen. Souji wasn't in the least disturbed by this, having no secrets to hide from his beloved friends, Satonaka Chie and Amagi Yukiko. "Ooh, a text to Rise-chan? Hmm... 'I'll be by to pick up some silken tofu afterschool.' That's not very romantic."

"Buying tofu usually isn't," Souji stated matter-of-factly, finally looking up from his phone, having sent the text. He glanced out the window for a moment. "It's a nice day outside... let's have lunch on the roof."

"Ooh, that's a good idea! And then after, I can find a sunbeam to nap in."

"I always took you for a dragon, not a cat."

"No way! That's Naoto-kun, remember?"

"Oh, you're right."

Yukiko stifled a giggle. "You two are _so weird_."

"You're one to talk," retorted Chie, rolling her eyes. "Whatever, c'mon. Let's go!"

"You two go on ahead. I need to deal with this," Souji said, gesturing at the still-full duffel bag underneath his seat. Chie nodded, filled with energy at the thought of food, and took Yukiko's hand as the two of them walked off with their lunches.

Souji waited for his two classmates to disappear out of the room before bending forward to reach into the duffel bag. It wasn't quite as close to bursting as it had been early in the morning, as Souji had been able to hand out a large portion of his courtesy chocolates as classmates had filtered in throughout the morning. Still, Kashiwagi had raised an eyebrow and made a snide remark about it at the beginning of the day, but he'd transfixed her with a soul-piercing stare and told her that its contents were of tantamount importance to the idyllic peace of Yasogami High, and placated her further with a bag of white chocolates.

 _I'll quickly deal with the other classes first..._

* * *

"Man, what is _taking_ those guys so long? I'm _hungry_!" Souji caught Chie's complaints on the wind as he made his way up the stairs to the roof of the school. _Sounds like they left the door to the roof open._

"Well, Souji's bag did seem really full, so he probably has a lot of courtesy chocolates to hand out, and I don't think Yosuke-kun even knows you're up here," reasoned Yukiko.

"Nah, I texted Yosuke. And even if Souji does have a lot of courtesy chocolates, he should still be spending White Day with his girlfriends!"

"Speak of the Fool and he shall appear," quipped Souji as he stepped onto the roof proper, his hands behind his back.

"There you are!"

"'Speak of the Fool'...? I don't think that's how the idiom goes, Souji."

Souji only gave a mysterious smile as he approached the two girls sequestered behind the roof exit. _For privacy, I assume?_

"Where's Yosuke?"

Chie's smile twisted into an annoyed scowl. "Dunno. Probably still in the bathroom, since that's the last I heard of him. Nevermind him, though. What're you hiding behind your back?"

He swept his arms out with some drama, holding the matched gifts upwards in the palms of his hands. One was green, with a yellow smiley face print pattern, wrapped in a second, translucent sheet of rice paper and bound with a white ribbon tied in an elaborate knot. The other was similarly composed, but its interior wrapping paper was red instead of green, and had cherry blossom motif.

"Oh!"

"Oh, wow!"

"Happy White Day," said Souji as he placed the gifts into their respective recipients' hands and sat down between the two young women before being double-teamed by their hugs.

"I wasn't expecting a whole present," Chie said, having released her hug, but still wrapped around his arm. "Just like, some chocolate or somethin'."

"'Triple the return'," Souji explained.

Opposite Chie, Yukiko nodded her head, understanding immediately. "You're surprisingly traditional, Souji—although the rice paper doesn't really match a Western-inspired holiday."

"I thought that it would suit traditional Japanese beauties like you two," he said, shrugging noncommittally. "And it wouldn't have been appropriate to give anything less to the people I love," he offered as further explanation.

"Man, you're pretty smooth, y'know."

Souji grinned, suffused with self-confidence. "Smooth enough to pull off a lunch date with two girls, on White Day, at the same time."

Chie and Yukiko both punched his shoulders lightly, bashfully. Their arrangement was certainly _unorthodox_ as these things went, but there was something about the way Souji had approached them both, equally, when the complex web of relationships he'd built over the school year had finally gotten to the point of nearly paralyzing him. At first, Chie and Yukiko had been reluctant to "share" him with each other, much less the others on the Investigation Team, but he had made a persuasive argument to everyone then, and with time, had convinced them with his actions and behavior, never treating one person as any less than another. And, along the way, he had shown Chie and Yukiko the depths of their feelings for each other.

"Alright, let's eat!" said Chie.

"Huh? But what about Yosuke-kun?"

"His fault for being late to lunch!"

"Give him a few more minutes, Chie," said Souji. "He's been having a rough week at work."

"Grr... Yeah, alright," Chie said dejectedly as she pulled Souji's arm around her shoulder, leaning up against him before giving him a kiss on his jawline. "At least him being late gives me more time with you."

Souji reciprocated her feelings by giving her a peck on the nose. To hide her blush, Chie leaned around her boyfriend to look at her girlfriend. Yukiko had let go of Souji for the most part, but her head was tilted down slightly, eyes focused on his hand, held between both of hers, entwining his fingers, occasionally running a slender, pale digit over a knuckle.

"Yukiko?" Chie inquired. "Are you okay?"

Without looking up, Yukiko smiled. "This is fine."

* * *

A few minutes later, Chie stood up and stretched. "Alright, I'm seriously starved. I'm gonna go look for Yosuke and drag him up here if I have to."

"Do you want us to come with you?" Yukiko asked.

"Nah. I've been hogging you all week long, I'll let you and Souji have some time alone," replied Chie with a grin, before dashing off to the exit.

 _In that case..._ Souji stood up. Yukiko looked up at him, curious. He gestured for her to scoot forward, before sitting down behind her, legs to either side, wrapping his arms around her torso and kissing her gently on the back of the head. Without a word, Yukiko leaned against her new backrest, sighing contentedly. Similarly, Souji leaned back against the wall.

Moments later, he heard voices coming from down below. _She forgot to close the door to the roof again..._

"Hey." It was Yosuke, and he sounded... tired. Practically beaten.

"Hey, you. Where've you been?"

 _I should leave them alone._ Souji glanced down at the dark-haired inn heiress embraced in his arms. Yukiko had pressed her back into his chest and pulled his arms up around her waist, and was humming a nostalgic tune.

 _Well, I'm fine with that._ He briefly tightened his hug, eliciting a giggle from Yukiko, rested his head against wall of the rooftop exit, and listened intently.

"Ah, well... y'know, it's White Day."

"Yeah...?"

"And, uh... ah, damnit. Well, I kind of... forgot?"

"You _forgot_?"

"No no, wait! I forgot, but then Souji reminded me when he gave me something, and said that it was alright if I gave it to you-"

"You forgot _and_ you were just going to use Souji's gift as a _replacement_? Damnit, Yosuke-"

"Hold _on_! Just _hear me out_ , okay? Yeah, I _did_ forget, and Souji _did_ give me a thing, that he said I could give to you, but I'm not going to do that, because he also said some stuff to me, and I thought... Well, I thought that 'I forgot, _sorry_ ' and letting someone else cover for me wasn't right."

"So, what? You're just going to make it up to me _later_? Like every other time?"

"No! I've already made it up to you."

"What?"

"I want you to clear your schedule tonight. Junes is holding a White Day dinner special event thing tonight—which is why I forgot in the first place, I was so tired from helping set it up last night I totally zonked out when I got home—and I want to take you out."

"Oh, Yosuke..." Souji could tell, just from the softening of Chie's tone, that Yosuke had taken all of the fire out of her fury.

"But, wait. Doesn't that mean you have work tonight? Every time Junes is doing something, you're _always_ busy because your dad ropes you in to help."

"Nah, not tonight. That's why I took so long in the bathroom—I got my old man to let me off for tonight."

"Wait, _you_ got your dad to let you take a day off?" Chie knew that, for all he complained about it, Yosuke worked at Junes because he respected his father, and helped at Junes because it helped out his family.

"Yeah. I told him it was bullshit that he was making me work tonight, of all nights. He didn't get why I'd care about tonight, so I, uh... told him about you. About us."

"O-oh... Did you, uh, tell him about Souji, too?"

"N-no. I don't think I'm ready to come out to him about _everything_ yet."

"Yeah, that makes sense. It's probably a big enough shock to him that his loser son actually has a girlfriend, huh?"

"Yeah, _and_ that she's a cool, ass-kicking beauty."

"W-what... sh-shut up, you loser."

On the roof, Souji smiled. He could imagine exactly the situation downstairs: Yosuke would be bashfully scratching the back of his neck, embarrassed, cowed, proud, relieved, and happy all at once; and Chie would have looked away, embarrassed but proud at her boyfriend's compliment, elated at the prospect of a romantic candle-lit dinner with him.

"Awww... That's so sweet," said Yukiko, still nestled against his chest.

"It's rude to eavesdrop, you know," he teased.

"You're one to talk, with that smile on your face," she said, rolling her head back to study his face.

"I could be smiling because of the elegant flower of Japanese beauty before me."

Yukiko's face flushed red as she pushed up to quickly kiss Souji on the lips.

"Can't it be both?"

* * *

 **Author's Note** : Chie and Yukiko as separate chapters didn't feel right, nor did they have _enough_ to them.

Still looking for beta readers.

Next time: I might have to change the story summary away from "Souji x Investigation Team".


	4. Fortune and The Emperor

**Author's Note** : Last time: I lied.

* * *

 **Fortune and The Emperor**

After classes let out, Souji made his way down the Samegawa flood plain. Yosuke had sniped Chie's attention away— _Good_ , thought Souji; _they_ should _be spending more time together._ Especially _since I'll be gone next week_ —and Yukiko had to help at the Amagi inn.

"We're under a massive rush," she had explained. "Even though we're not that kind of inn, a lot of tourists are coming to Inaba this week for the 'romantic country landscape'. I think there was a TV special about it." She wore a small, sad smile. "I wish I didn't have to... I want to spend more of today with you. But then again, this works out for you, doesn't it? You still have to see Naoto-kun and Rise-chan."

"Not just them," Souji corrected her. "You're sure you're too busy to come with me?"

Yukiko nodded, her fingers slowly slipping away from his. "Yeah. Duty calls. Give everyone my love too, okay?"

Before her hands dropped out of his grasp completely, Souji held one up to his lips, giving the back of her hand a kiss as a silent reply.

* * *

They'd parted ways some dozens of meters ago, and now the silver-haired boy was fast approaching the familiar old pavilion that overlooked the Samegawa River, a much-lightened duffel bag slung across his back.

Sitting at the table in the protective shade was Tatsumi Kanji, the tall blonde boy from earlier that morning. He was making small-talk with the person sitting next to him, one who looked for all the world like a male student in the white, short-sleeved buttoned shirt and dark, straight-legged pants that made up the Yasogami High summer uniform; but the familiar blue hat gave their identity away like a signature.

 _Or a solitary thumbprint in a crime scene._

Souji had come up in the corner of Kanji's vision, a finger held to his lips, entreating silence and subtlety—not normally Kanji's strong points, but somehow the older teen managed to keep his cool and his eyes on his conversation partner—and slid in smoothly beside the blue-hatted Yaso student, snaking an arm around their _decidedly_ feminine waist.

"Hello, Senpai," Shirogane Naoto said in a low, affected masculine tone, without turning away from Kanji.

"Yukiko sends her love," Souji teplied, giving his girlfriend a quick squeeze, releasing the embrace, and reaching around to also squeeze his boyfriend's arm.

Kanji frowned slightly. "Wait, how'd you know?"

Naoto began to explain, still not facing her senior. "Your eyes—you looked away from me for a moment, which you hadn't done since we started talking here, so it had to be something—or some _one_ —passing by very close that caught your attention. But that only told me that there was someone behind me. It was when Senpai put his arm around me that I knew who it was."

Kanji leaned forward against the table, surprise written clearly on his face. "Whoa, you figured all that out from just a single glance?"

"No, not quite. It was your _behavior_ that ultimately gave away Senpai's presence," the Detective Prince of Yasoinaba continued, with a smile on her face. _This is my favorite part—tying together all the clues and closing out the mystery with the one and only possible conclusion._ "When Senpai put his arm around my waist, you didn't budge. Now, who in the world could have passed behind me, getting your attention but not your acknowledgement, and could come into close physical contact with me, without eliciting a response from you?"

"The one person you and I both trust implicitly," Naoto concluded, leaning briefly against Souji. "And love," she finished, in a near-whisper, a slow blush rising up from her neck, her eyes intently boring a hole in the table the three of them sat at.

Souji looked up to study the face of his boyfriend on the opposite side of his girlfriend. Kanji, too, had a slow blush creeping up his neck. It wasn't so long ago that he'd been mired in his own inner storm of tumultous emotions, trying to reconcile his feelings of adoration for both Naoto and Souji—feelings that ran stronger than 'adoration' could possibly communicate. It was an anguished confession given secretly one night that had set Kanji on the road to this moment in time, and for that he'd always been thankful for the Midnight Channel—for all the trouble it had caused, without it, he would never have met the quiet, strong man that he admired.

"And love," Kanji echoed quietly, looking Souji straight in the eyes.

Souji acknowledged their words with his smile—a rare thing for someone who was more known for calm collectedness and unemotive coolness, but that made his smile all the more precious. "Have you already given your gift?" Souji asked.

Kanji shook his head. "Nah, was waiting for you. You said we were gonna give her 'our' gifts, right?"

The two boys reached into their respective bags, each pulling out a set of presents. Kanji had two packages, one wrapped in white paper with black hatching, bound with a blue ribbon; and the second was enveloped in blue paper with thick white stripes, and tied up in a black ribbon.

Souji also placed two well-wrapped gifts on the table: one had blue and yellow wrapping paper and a white ribbon with a complex knot; the other matched it, but was black instead of blue.

"Kanji-"

"Senpai-"

"-Two gifts?"

Naoto giggled at her boyfriends' simultaneous words.

"For me?" They continued, still in sync. "Of course. It's White Day."

Their girlfriend gave an uncharacteristically bright laugh. "You two are surprisingly similar," she stated.

Rather than retorting verbally, the teens on either side of her leaned in, planting their lips on her cheeks, causing her to immediately flush a deep crimson.

"Makes sense," Souji started.

"S'why you love both of us, right?" Kanji finished.

"Does that mean we're also terrible narcissists?" Souji mused. His grey eyes were contemplative as he continued, "Is my love of Kanji—and his love of me—simply _masturbatory_?"

"Man, you say the _weirdest_ things sometimes, Senpai," said Kanji, smiling widely at Souji's queer philosophizing.

Leaning contentedly against Kanji, her back against his side and his arm laid protectively over her shoulder, Naoto agreed with a chuckle. "Indeed. You two are similar, but that strange humor is all your own, Senpai."

* * *

 **Author's Note** : Kanji's admiration and adoration of Souji and his deep crush on Naoto; Naoto's deep respect for Souji and her complicated feelings for Kanji; and Souji's (my?) kind understanding of them—Souji x Naoto x Kanji ma(de|kes) absolute sense to me.

I've pushed out these last couple of chapters on a near-daily basis, but expect the next one to take a while, as I suddenly have a pile of deadlines to meet.

Next time: I might have to change the story summary for reals.


	5. The Empress, The Aeon, and The Lovers

**Author's Note** : Last time: foul continuity continues to make a liar out of me. I mean, I've changed the story summary, but not to the extent I was expecting to.

And if not foul continuity, then my own obsession has certainly damned me.

* * *

 **(Not) The Empress, (Nor) The Aeon, and (Only) The Lovers**

Souji spent moments more with Naoto and Kanji, but ultimately had to take his leave of them, entrusting Kanji into Naoto's care—and Naoto into Kanji's—with a parting kiss.

"Going so soon, Senpai?" Naoto asked, only a _little_ forlorn.

"I want to pick up some silken tofu for dinner tonight," he explained.

"Of course," the young detective said, her eyes narrowing suspiciously. "And that wouldn't have anything to do with your absence at lunch today?"

Souji fixed his junior with a stony glare, but Naoto didn't even flinch. If anything, it was as if she enjoyed butting heads with her boyfriend—testing her razor wit and detective's skills against his impenetrable stoicism and ice-cold calm.

Kanji, to his credit, loomed up behind his diminutive lover, cracking knuckles intimidatingly.

 _Hard to tell who's the good cop and who's the bad cop_ , Souji mused, holding his silence seconds more. "It is _fortunate_ that Rise works at a tofu shop," he admitted, "and I _happened_ to place an order for silken tofu from a tofu shop."

"Are you saying that you ordered tofu from the same store that Kujikawa Rise-san works at, Seta Souji-san?"

"I am saying that I ordered tofu from _a_ tofu shop, and that _it is known_ that a certain Kujikawa Rise-san is also employed at _a_ tofu shop," the teen reiterated. "Any conclusions drawn from these two discrete facts are _yours_ , Detective Shirogane, and not statements _I_ have personally made."

It was Naoto's turn to glare stonily, but she had no real cards to play, and so relented with an amused "damn you." She embraced Souji one last time, arms wrapped low around his waist. Kanji followed her up, sandwiching the Detective Prince.

"Well, if you _happen_ to see a certain Kujikawa Rise-san, give her my regards."

"Yeah, tell her I said 'hi', man." Kanji grinned, relieved that the little interrogation was over. _I can never tell when these two are just messin' around or not..._

* * *

On his way through Inaba's central shopping district, Souji caught a flash of blue light in a dark corner of his memory. Captured like a cat by curiosity, he stopped to look—and something about the alleyway to his left beckoned despondently. He wandered down its dark, winding way cautiously, vaguely recalling an old English proverb—something about dead cats and concern.

But there was nothing. _A hallucination...?_

No, that wasn't it. His heart caught in his throat, overwhelmed by a sense of-

Of-

Loss?

 _Nostalgia._

He was struck with a sense of _jamais vu_ —he'd walked this alley before; stepped through a door, here, before, but _it wasn't there_ ; held someone's hand, _here_ , before, but _I don't remember them_ ; it was like all the lines of a poem sat on the tip of his tongue, but he only wanted the poet's _name_.

Somewhere along the way, gifts had appeared in his hands. He didn't remember them—didn't remember wrapping them—deep velvet ( _velvet?_ ) blue and a white braid trimmed with gold; candy-striped black and white with a plaid-patterned bow—didn't remember the loops and whorls of the ribbons, didn't remember what was in them—

 _I don't remember who they're_ for _._

Something—some internal force—compelled him to put the presents on the ground—not in a panic, not as if they were hostile and _alien_ , but as though he were paying tribute to a god— _or memorializing a grave._

Tribute paid, Souji turned from the alleyway and walked back into the sunlight, heart still heavy with nostalgia.

* * *

"Senpaaaai!" The pitch-perfect cry reached Souji's ear before he had walked through the the door, but if there was recognition there, he didn't show it.

Copper-auburn hair tamped down by a kerchief, chocolate-brown eyes, and clad in a well-worn and well-used apron, the Idol of Inaba, Kujikawa Rise, waved from behind the counter of Marukyu Tofu, a genuine smile painted on her pale countenance as she practically leapt over the barrier between her and the boy she claimed for lover.

She slid her arms around him, chin against his chest, into a hug that came as naturally to her as song and dance, making it seem as if _this_ was where she belonged, as if _here_ was her place ordained by the world. One of Souji's arms rose languorously to clench her to his breast, the near-empty duffel bag dangling limply from the other limb.

Rise, pulling away from her shaken boyfriend, could tell, immediately, that something was wrong.

"Grandma," she cried out over her shoulder, "I'm gonna take a quick break!" She snatched Souji's one free hand and dragged him into the back of the store, pivoting with a dancer's grace to place him in a chair before dropping down to meet him, bronze-brown eyes to steel-grey.

There was no spark of recognition.

"Senpai?" Rise whispered tremulously, holding his hands in his lap.

"Senpai?" Stronger, louder.

With urgent demand in her voice now, she cried out his name. "Souji!"

His eyes snapped into focus, recognizing the humdrum idol in front of him, and crushed her in a powerful, needy hug, clinging to her like a drowning man to flotsam, his breaths coming jaggedly. She said no further words, only holding him as tightly as he held her, arms crossing behind his back, over his shoulders.

"Rise," he mumbled, his face pressed against her breastbone.

"Rise."

"Rise."

"Rise." Her name had become a mantra.

"I'm here," she whispered. "I'm here for you, right here."

This wasn't the first time she'd been there for him, though the first time she'd been an entirely unexpected surprise. He had thought she'd have been the first one to break, and the first one to break the bonds they'd all forged over the course of the year, but there had yet been greater depths to the girl he clutched now, depths he'd only learned of in that desperate hour.

She hadn't been the one to break, or to make broken. If anything, it was _because_ of her that _no one_ broke, or had broken the web of emotions—that inextricably tied them all together now—in its early days of exposure. Far from furious jealousy, she'd been the first one to come to him with arms wide open.

Souji inhaled deeply, gently pulling away, eyes fixated on the floor, before finally saying something other than her name. "Felt like I'd just moved out here," the jumbled thought fell from his lips. "Like I didn't know anyone anymore."

Rise's eyes shone with concern-

"On the way here, I realized I'd forgotten someone," Souji's rambling continued, "and I still don't remember who." He looked up into her eyes, surrounded by a fall of chestnut-red hair. "Do you?"

Wordlessly, Rise's hands rose up to her boyfriend's face, touching and feeling and comforting, all the while searching for a hidden wound, or a mark, or a clue to his trauma.

He pulled away a hand, kissing the palm reflexively before answering his own question. "No, you don't. None of us do."

Wistfulness welled up within Rise at his words; she _had_ forgotten someone. Someone near and dear to her, just as Souji was near and dear to her. But—

"I think," she began, the words coming out slowly, "we'll know them when we see them."

—she wasn't broken up by it.

"You care too much, Senpai," Rise teased, the shadow of a smile on her face. "You know, there's an English saying about that? 'Care will kill a cat'," she quoted at him.

This brought Souji back to reality. "Good to know my English lessons weren't a waste," he retorted.

She stuck her tongue out at him before softening her expression; he knew the question before it was spoken, but let her ask anyway.

"Are you okay now?"

He nodded. "I'm fine." It was as much a statement of fact as it was an imposition of his will— _whether or not I'm fine,_ I am fine _._

Rise accepted this. She'd long ago learned that her beloved Senpai was implacable—that for all his kindness and care, once he had fixed a goal in his mind and set his body to motion, there was nothing that could be done to stop him. In more ways than one, he was _irresistible_.

"In that case, I'll go get your order of tofu," she said as she turned away from him-

-But her movement was stopped by his iron grip.

"Wait." He reached into the bottomless depths of his duffel bag and produced a present—pink as a cherry blossom, gilt with glittering gold hearts, and bound with a ribbon that terminated in a great, big, frilly white bow.

"Happy White Day," Souji said.

For a moment, silence.

Then, a giggle.

Then, a laugh.

A long, burbling string of side-clutching, near-painful, but relieved laughter.

Souji sat in silence.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, Rise choked out a recognizable string of words. "You come in here-" _chuckle_ "-looking like-" _giggle_ "-the _end of the world_ -" _sniffle_ "-and almost _kill me with worry_ -" she fell into his arms again, the present knocked away "-and all you have to say is _happy White Day_!?" Rise finished with a hiccupped spurt of tears.

Souji had no retort for her; instead, he clutched her to his heart, a reversal of their roles from minutes ago, while she weakly pounded on his shoulders with lightly-balled fists.

"You dummy," she muttered a short while later.

"I know," he said, smiling ruefully. "I'm sorry."

"You're not gonna make it up to me with just a 'sorry', Senpai!" Rise teased weakly, half-feigning distemper.

Instead of repeating himself, Souji held his idol by the shoulders and kissed her full on the lips, saying more than words ever could. When they broke away, all the displeasure had washed out of Rise's expression, entirely replaced by a deep red blush.

"Well," she mumbled with childish petulance, "that's a start."

* * *

 **Author's Note** : Foul continuity be damned, the power of drama compels me.

I am still seeking a willing beta reader.

Next time: Everyday younglife Junes∼!


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